Goodison

@NoshowJones You might find the link below an interesting read. https://www.pattayamail.com/latestnews/news/new-british-law-to-crack-down-on-overseas-benefit-fraud-starts-in-2025-479979

@oxo1947 Nothing official out there. I think it was signed earlier but only came into force on 1989. Philippines has so many Expat workers and a thing for getting protection for them. There was not many in the UK then and not many Brit Expat pensioners in the Philippines which always seems to get more of a USA Vet destination. It was at the time when there was calls in the Philippines to close the USA navy bases which happened in 1992 and I tend to think it was part of trying to keep the Philippines sweet and on the side of the West. One thing I think we can be sure of is they never did it out of the kindness of their hearts. After decades of trying to get the UK to include indexed pensions for Brits in Australia in their reciprocal social security agreement Australia had enough and and scrapped the social security agreement. 45% of frozen pensioners live in Australia, 30% in Canada and 9% in NZ. So their Citizens have a right to be pissed off as their taxes are paying for social services that make up for some of the shortfall. They all said they won’t sign a CANZUK deal unless the UK index the pensions and with 84% living in their Countries that would end frozen pensions but this government is not interested in a CANZUK deal and want closer ties with the EU.

@Keith5588 OK to finish on this I put a link below that shows the standard room rates for hospitals in Phuket. Vachira is a government hospital and is 2,000 THB, Mission Hospital is a Private Non Profit Hospital and is 3,300 THB. Bangkok Hospital is a Private Profit Hospital and between 4,960 and 6,200 THB. https://www.easylivinginsurance.com/how-much-hospital-room-cost-in-phuket/

@Keith5588 Here is the 2nd Vid on the SMC.

@Keith5588 As I said Vachira Government Hospital in Phuket was the first to open a Foreigner/VIP office that was the model for the others that followed and now they got this special medical clinic so maybe they are leading the way again and this will come to other places. I put a couple of Bids showing this SMC below.

@Keith5588 Just to show you don’t always have to go to Bangkok and it pays to shop around. The Bid below shows a clinic on Udon Thani we’re they do the cataract operation and replace your eye lenses that fix your eye sight. The guy was asked the cost in the comments and said the whole thing start to finish was 150,144 THB.

@Keith5588 I get 3 months supply at a time from the government hospital which is a fraction of the cost of a private hospital and even cheaper than the high street pharmacy. If you scroll down in the link to Fig.5 you will see that Private Hospitals get 35% of their revenue from medication sales and at the prices they charge I am not surprised. Some years ago I went to Wattana hospital and was charged 22,000 THB for 3 months supply. The next time I went to the government hospital and was charged less than 5,000 THB and in the high street pharmacy it was about 6,500 THB. https://www.krungsri.com/en/research/industry/industry-outlook/services/private-hospitals/io/io-private-hospitals

@Keith5588 I can’t find any for the over 70’s but for those that are younger personal accident insurance is very cheap. I also watched a Vid this week by a guy who had a bit of an accident on his scooter and ended up paying a hospital bill and was clueless that you could claim this back from the government compulsory Por Ror Bor insurance. I put a link below that explains what Por Ror Bor for a scooter covers and how to make claim which is not hard. https://www.expatden.com/thailand/por-ror-bor-thailand/

@Keith5588 This is a thread where somebody says Udon Thani Cancer Hospital was excellent, cheap and easy to get an appointment. Sheryl who I think is the resident medical expert on here says Private hospitals are 4 to 5 times the cost of government. I think maybe that bus right for the more expensive ones like Bangkok Hospitals but fit standard Private hospitals I like Wattana I would say it’s about 3 times. You can break hospital types in Thailand into 4 types. 1) Private Profit such as Bangkok Hospital. 2) Private Non Profit such as Bangkok Christian Hospital and Mission Hospitals in Bangkok and Phuket. 3) Public Non Government Hospital such as King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital in Bangkok which is affiliated to the MOPH (Ministry Of Public Health) but is a Red Cross Hospital run by a Non Profit Trust. 4) MOPH (Government) Hospitals).

There are a lot of threads on here that mention Queen Siriket Heart Center at Khon Kaen government hospital and here is one.

@Keith5588 This a thread from a few few years ago that says the Foreigner Office at Hua Hin government hospital is on the 5th floor of the Purple building but in another thread on a different forum the said 6th floor. Anyway 5th or 6th you should find it easy.

@Keith5588 As I got to copy the links I will give you them one by one. Here is the Vidvthat shows the Foreigner/VIP office in Udon Thani.

@Keith5588 I watched Les Vid again he says his sub contacted the DWP and was told he would only get his pension unfrozen for he duration of the visit. Les then contacted the DWP and was told no He is right and the pension will be reset. The sub then contacted the DWP and was told the same as Les but they refused to give this in writing and the Sub is now in the Philippines. From other links on here including Mike Lister in a link who actually went back the UK passed a habitual resident test and got that in writing from the DWP that also informed him there is no set time period and it is about satisfying the DWP assessor that he had settled back in the UK with the intent to keep it as his main resident home.I found another article from the Daily Telegraph and put the link below, saying much the same that you must have settled back in the UK to reset your state pension otherwise it will revert back to the previous frozen rate. It’s beyond me why you have to do this in the UK and only have to spend 185 days in a reciprocal Country with no intent of settling there or need to pass a habitual resident test. So we got some people at the DWP say you only get your pension unfrozen for the duration of the visit and others saying it resets your pension and nobody there who wil give any if this in writing. https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/will-moving-back-to-the-uk-for-a-few-years-unfreeze-my-state-pension/ar-BB1qO60G?apiversion=v2&noservercache=1&domshim=1&renderwebcomponents=1&wcseo=1&batchservertelemetry=1&noservertelemetry=1

@Keith5588 As you mentioned the NHS I am going to go off topic as you might not know the following. Vachira Government Hospital in Phuket was the first to open a Foreigner/VIP Office and was the model for the ones that followed in Chiang Mai, Hua Hin, Udon Thani, Khon Kaen. I use the one in Udon and the service is 810 THB. For that you wait in an a/c waiting room. They have PR ladies who speak English to assist you. They fast track you to see a Dr though you still got some wait. I spoke to the PR girls and they showed me a long list that is most of the Thai Health Insurance Companies that they can bill direct and of course as a rules of thumb government hospitals are a 1/3rd the cost if a standard private hospital. Also note Khon Kaen Houses Queen Siriket Heart Center which only gets great reports on here (I put a link to one thread below). Udon Thani also has the Government Cancer Hospital (I put a ASEANNOW thread where it gets a great report). I was there last week checking out for a friend who is thinking of coming up to get his prostrate cancer treated. It is more like a private hospital than government one. Some of the reception girls speak English. The told me the cost is the same for foreigners as Thais. It has a new 6 story radiotherapy center. 2 of my wife’s friends work at one of the private hospitals and told me if any patients need RT they take them the government hospital and they also collect and cancer medicine from there. To get an idea on prices I asked about RT. Tye told me they have different machines and 4 types of RT and depends on what type and where the cancer is to which one you need. Anyway the costs did 30 sessions for the 4 types are 120,000, 160,000, 200,000, 240,000. I also put a link below if a Vid that shows the Foreign Customer/VIP office at Udon government hospital.

@Keith5588 People do get caught and the link below tells about bloke who lives in Pattaya. At a minimum they want the over pay money back. Fines are between £350 & £5,000. They can stop or reduce your benefit up to 3 years and could criminally prosecute you. HMRC & DWP are joined at the hip and share info and if your caught HMRC are going to take a good look at you. We are living in an ever digital world and the UK & Thailand are both CRS Countries and if you want to know what info they share look up Common Reporting Standard WIKIPEDIA. https://www.iexpats.com/cheating-expats-try-fiddle-pension-claims/